


Outside La Michoacana

by compo67



Series: Chicago Verse [112]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Established Dean Winchester/Sam Winchester, Established Relationship, Growing Old Together, Grumpy Dean, Grumpy Old Men, M/M, Old Married Couple, Post-Series, Short & Sweet, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-21
Updated: 2017-05-21
Packaged: 2018-11-03 05:34:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,003
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10960749
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/compo67/pseuds/compo67
Summary: La Michoacana Deluxe Ice Cream is your one stop shop to find traditional Mexican treats as well as featuring authentic handcrafted ice cream and popsicles.It is also one of Dean's favorite places for treats and introspection.





	Outside La Michoacana

    1. Dean stops by La Michoacana on Blue Island and Loomis, not too far from Los Comales. He had three steak tacos and polished off a side of rice and refried beans, plus an horchata, but it’s eighty degrees in the middle of May. This means he absolutely needs a paleta. Lordes introduced him to mangonadas--a concoction of chamoy sauce, mangos, lime juice, and chili powder. He got halfway through it only to have heartburn kick him in the ass, stomach, and throat. No more mangonadas. He’s good with a paleta de leche, sabor fresa. 
    2. One strawberry paleta later, he hunkers down on a bench outside the shop. Lines form. People chat in an exuberant melody of Spanish and English. He savors each bite of his paleta--cool, sweet, milky.
    3. Perhaps the best part of a strawberry paleta is the frozen strawberry stuck through the popsicle at the end. Dean works his way towards it. However, he slows his roll at the annoying sign of brain freeze. 
    4. Ouch. 
    5. Now his teeth hurt.
    6. Hugo plops onto the small wedge of space available on the bench. He takes care not to knock over Dean’s cane. Dean nods, in between bites of paleta, and grumbles, “What’s the word, kid?” In response, Hugo shrugs, being fourteen years old and too cool to reply with words right away. Cars drive past. Wind chimes in the doorway of the bakery across the street add a pleasant sound to everyone’s shuffle down Loomis. Clouds block the sun for a moment and provide welcomed shade. 
    7. Hugo takes a deep breath. “Are you gay?”
    8. Dean’s eyebrows rise. He takes a methodical bite of his paleta.
    9. “Yeah. I guess so.” 
    10. “Is… Sam gay?” 
    11. Closer to the frozen strawberry, Dean murmurs, “Y’know, I’ve never asked.” 
    12. He could buy another paleta. There’s no reason not to. Except the sugar content. And the fact that he had a paleta this morning, before he left for the museum. But he did do a lot of walking at the museum, being a tour guide and all, so the second paleta is entirely justified. His cholesterol may be high, but the doctor hasn’t said a damn thing about his sugars. Sam isn’t exactly helpful about Dean’s health either--who the fuck runs three miles at six in the morning every morning, rain or shine? And who the fuck thinks Dean would do that? Even twentysomething Dean would laugh at the mere suggestion. 
    13. “I think I’m gay.”
    14. Oh.



 

  * _Oh. _



 

  1. “You think or you know?”
  2. With a shrug, Hugo looks away. “I think,” he mumbles. “I guess. I don’t know.” 
  3. Moms storm past. Some give into the pleas for ice cream. Others insist that there’s ice cream at home. Dean wonders if that’s true. He hopes it is. No one should be lied to about the availability of ice cream. Now at the end of his paleta, only a few licks away from the strawberry, Dean leans back on the bench. He notices faded colored chalk on the sidewalk. 
  4. The clouds overhead stay, stubborn and determined to ruin what could have been a tranquil evening. Maybe instead of burgers, he’ll make chicken soup. He just needs to swing by the grocery store on Ashland for some carrots. 
  5. Dean bites into the frozen strawberry and shows it no mercy. 
  6. “I was sixteen,” Dean rumbles, his paleta finished. “When I knew. Sam was twelve.”
  7. Three teenage girls leave La Michoacana with mangonadas. Their flip flops smack against the sidewalk. 
  8. “You guys grew up together?”
  9. “Yeah.”
  10. “Did you… sleep with women?” 
  11. “I did.”
  12. “Did Sam?”
  13. “Yep.”
  14. “And you guys still ended up here?”
  15. Sam ordered a new cane for Dean. This one should have an arm cradle to take the pressure off his hand. Those god damn masochists at physical therapy want him to bring it in and teach him how to walk with it. They’ve been talking some shit about IT bands and hamstrings and plantar fascitis. Did he care about any of that ten years ago? Fifteen years ago? Twenty? No. He ran. He hunted. He iced whatever hurt and used multiple poorly chosen coping skills to get over shit. He certainly did not pay people money to tell him, “Well, those were good, but you still have three more scap squeezes. And after this, we can do your monster walks and band work.”
  16. Ugh. 
  17. But sometimes, after PT, Sam is home. 
  18. And he’ll ask, “Heat or ice?” Then he’ll get whichever one Dean requests, plus a glass of water, and a spot on the comfiest couch in the living room, and one of the blankets Mrs. Martinez crocheted for them. 
  19. Late at night, when Dean inevitably wakes up from a cramp in his leg or aches in his shoulders, Sam wakes up not long after. He’ll grab the muscle roller, or the tiger balm, or the heat pad, or the stretch band. Once the worst is over, Sam props Dean up in bed and chooses a record from the crate near his nightstand. The crate used to sit by Dean’s nightstand, until it just made more sense to have it by Sam’s. Two nights ago, Sam fished out Zeppelin III. 
  20. Three nights ago, Sam chose Norah Jones. 
  21. Dean will cut anyone who does not recognize the beauty of “Painter’s Song.” 
  22. Once the record finished, Sam got up and took the needle off. 
  23. He got back into bed and ran a hand through Dean’s hair, giving a quick, playful pull. 
  24. Then he pat Dean on the chest. 
  25. And said, “Go back to sleep, Dean.” 
  26. Dean picks up his cane. Carrots. Celery.
  27. “We sure did.” With the help of his cane, he rises from the bench. More muscles and joints ache than he’d like, but he manages. 
  28. Sam likes coconut paletas. 
  29. Nodding over to La Michoacana, Dean offers, “Wanna walk?” 
  30. This time, Hugo doesn’t shrug first and speak later. He speaks first, “Yeah,” then shrugs. That’s progress. Just like it’s progress that Dean only buys Sam’s paleta--not a third one for himself. 



**Author's Note:**

> tried something different. :) 
> 
> comments are love! <3


End file.
